Mortgage chief Vishal Garg has faced backlash after laying off 900 people over a Zoom call last week.
The head of a startup mortgage website that laid off 900 employees via a Zoom call last week has apologized after coming under attack on how he handled the mass layoffs.
“I did not show the appropriate level of respect and appreciation to the data subjects and their contributions to Better,” said Vishal Garg, CEO of mortgage bank Better.com, in a statement (PDF).
. @ betterdotcoms CEO @vishalgarg_ is laying off ~ 900 employees shortly before the holidays and the company’s launch.
The company also received a $ 750 million cash infusion THIS WEEK from its backers, which include @SoftBank. pic.twitter.com/F8EfSkCRF6
– Bucky with the good arm (@benjancewicz) December 3, 2021
While Garg says he is entitled to the decision to take workers off leave, he regrets that his communication has been less than tactful and apologizes for embarrassing his employees.
“I understand that the way I communicated this message made a difficult situation even worse. I am deeply sorry, “he added. “I failed to show due respect.”
Garg fired 900 Better.com Mortgage employees en masse last Wednesday in a Zoom webinar. A video clip of the call went viral earlier this week, encouraging comments on social media such as “this is inhuman” and “it’s all about him”.
“If you take this call, you will be part of the unfortunate group that will be fired. Your employment here has ended. With immediate effect, ”said Garg during the mass layoff.
The CEO told employees that Better.com would be laying off about 15 percent of its workforce, citing the market cooling, efficiency and performance as reasons.
“I wish the news was different. I wish we were successful, ”he said. “This is the second time in my career that I have done this and I don’t want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried. “
Garg remained emotionless and to the point throughout the call.
But the Zoom call apparently isn’t Garg’s first mistake with employees.
In an email from Forbes magazine, Garg wrote to the staff: “You are TOO FUCKING SLOW. You’re a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and … DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and are eaten by sharks. So stop doing that. STOP IT. STOP THAT IMMEDIATELY. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME.”
Better.com, which Garg founded in 2015, aims to use technology to get a mortgage “faster and more efficiently,” according to its website. With support from Softbank, Better announced plans earlier this year to go public via a merger with Blankoscheck firm, or SPAC, which it says would value Better between $ 6.9 billion and $ 7.7 billion
